Atheren's Adventures: Where The Game Is Always Afoot

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Tuesday, August 14, 2018

I wanted some variety to these Try Its, and what could be more different from what I usually play than this? It's a highly regarded stealth game, and it was on sale. That's how things get in your Steam Library.

I played after getting my 110s to Eastpoint Station in Tiragarde Sound, (Wow) so I was tired trying this out. That's my excuse.

It begins with a training course to see if your spy skills are as good as they used to be. Poor Sam. He's a complete fool now. Because I'm him.

The first section is jumping up walls, climbing ladders and climbing along poles. Easy enough.

Then came a Split Jump. The idea of it reminded me of many Tomb Raider walls where you had to successfully leap back and forth between two walls while moving upward. Never my specialty.

Unbelievably, I got it on the first try.

Next, you practice sneaking skills. You creep up on a guy in the dark, then grab him and "interrogate him". I couldn't remember how they said to drop him once he gave me the door code, so I squeaked it out of him a few times. One the plus side, I could sure remember the code when I finally got to the door.

Sometimes, sneaking, grabbing and interrogating isn't enough. You might also want to maneuver your prey over to a retinal scanner and stick his head up against it, voila, opening another door.

I don't do well with lock picks on a timer as they are in ESO, but this for one I could just delicately use the arrow keys to move the bits.

When a game tells you to shoot out the lights to evade the camera, and you keep peeking around the corner trying to shoot out the camera, what to do, what to do?

Finally, I go, oh, doh, the lights. Not good enough! Because there's one right above my head I'm not seeing. So for a few tries, it's busted, busted, try again.

I missed the screenshot on the next bit, where I must take out the guard, then hide his body in a dark spot. Then another guard comes by and I have to be very quiet, he gives up, then I go pop him and toss him on top of the other guy. Spies need all these skills, I'm sure.

The last room, but probably not the last training room in the facility, was an audio one. There is a big thump thump heartbeat sound, and swinging microphones. Your job is to quietly cross the room. There's all metal and noisy wood flooring except for a spot of carpet in the center of the room, a jump down from where you are. I did try a running jump to the carpet. No. I'll have to come back to the rest of the course.

There are a lot of commands to remember. A lot of moves. I can do it here, in the training facility, but you know in the open world where I'm facing a bad guy with a gun or big muscles, I'll be all screamy and flailing my hands and it'll be all dead dead Sam. Sorry guy.

Monday, August 13, 2018

I've been meaning to write a post regarding what I appreciated in Legion and what I'm looking forward to in Battle For Azeroth.

Z and Cinder had a great blog challenge up Farewell to Legion which encouraged you to think about the good things brought by Legion, so you don't get all cranky and start talking about Underbelly quests or other annoyances.

Part 1 – What were your top 3 moments in Legion

This could be anything! We want you to take a moment
to look back and think about what it was that made Legion a great expansion for
you? Did you achieve something in game for the first time during Legion? Was
there a quest line or NPC or zone that you absolutely fell in love with? Or was
there a piece of music or a mechanic that you fell in love with. Share your
favourites in this topic

Getting Pathfinder for Flying has to be the top moment.

I could see people were getting it easy peasy in just a few weeks, but the reputation grinds and the Broken Shore completion were really unpleasant. The next time around (BFA) I'm going to make certain to do every single quest everywhere, to do every single thing that might be an achievement I can do, and it will be quicker this next round.

My Frost Mage Gets Her Artifact Weapon

I had a terrible time getting my Frost Mage to the Broken Isles because I could not beat the boss in her Artifact Quest. Every other character had no trouble. She was just stuck in Draenor. It was very sad. Then one day I tried it again and she got it!

Soon thereafter, I changed her to Fire Mage and she's had a much better time of it.

Suramar

I loved Suramar. It was like a mini-expansion, completely different from every other area in Legion. The story was really well done, though it might have ended a bit sooner. At first I hated Suramar City, but as I got better gear and could easily take on the roaming elites, it was fun.

I loved that in disguise my Feral Druid looked like a beautiful cat.

Even the Suramar Swim Form disguise was great.

Part 2 – What are you most looking forward to about Battle for Azeroth?

For this one, it’s time to look forward. Whether you’re Horde or Alliance, there is much to look forward to in the new expansion. This topic isn’t necessarily focused on zones or NPCs that you’re looking forward to seeing (though that, of course, absolutely counts and of course feel free to write about these!) but maybe it’s something more than that. Are there some goals that you’re wanting to achieve now that a new expansion is on the horizon? Are there changes coming to your class that you are really excited about?

Pirates, Tales of the Sea, Yo Ho!

I feared Battle for Azeroth would be all icky and PvP filled, but it isn't at all! The Horde are barely seen, I suppose unless you're in Warmode or a certain city in Stormsong Valley.I have a lifelong love of pirates and sea stories and this expansion is a dream. It's sort of amazing they took three large geographical areas and gave them all different takes on seafaring superstitions and monsters.

The quests in Tiragarde Sound and Drustvar really flow well from one area to the next. You're drawn along by story and your own desire to explore. Does it get better than that?

The city of Boralus (Alliance side, of course) is, I think, the best drawn out city they've ever done. It sprawls, but in a natural way a city would sprawl, right down to the docks.

You can get boat rides everywhere! In addition to flight points you can take ferries from one place to the next. The oarsmen and women are often telling stories or making comments as they go.

Herbs grow in some unexpected places. Like the sides of buildings, or on trees, or in rivers, or by the seaside.

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Happy Blaugust Sunday! I hope you have good eyesight, glasses, a telescope, or a magnifying glass! Once I had the idea to put the Blaugust participants in a Word-find, I just had to do it.

Word-find generators don't appreciate lots of words, but I needed lots. So this is a very dense puzzle.

I couldn't use spaces in your blog names or it would think it was a new clue.

Some names had to be shortened. One blog name had to be altered slightly, or it made it two clues, sorry! If a person had two blogs I took the one with the shorter name to fit it in.

This may look hinky on mobile, but I had to try for a larger size view.

I was going to offer a Solution Page, but while I was working on getting the puzzle together, I think the Solution page timed out. Oops! Bring a flashlight!

I don't think many will do the puzzle, but if there's interest, I can put a PDF post of the puzzle and clues on my Galaxies blog which is WordPress, and friendlier to PDFs. There's always a solution! As it is, if you click to enlarge or print this out it should be more "normal" sized.

Good luck, and thanks for all the extraordinary writing out there this month.

Blaugust Puzzle Clues

AETERNUSGAMING

AHOBBITSJOURNEY

ALDSHOTFIRST

ANCIENTGAMINGNOOB

ARCSODDITIES

ARMAGONLIVE

ASHESADVENTURES

AYWRENSOJOURNER

BARELYREADABLEDIARY

BEYONDTANNHAUSERGATE

BIOBREAK

BOOKOFJEN

BRAINDUMP

BUILTONADAYDREAM

CALAMITYJESS

CANIPLAYTOO

CASUALAGGRO

CINEMAXICA

CONTAINSMODERATEPERIL

DEEZWURDS

DIARYOFAGUILDLEADER

ENDGAMEVIABLE

FRESHEYESINGAMING

FULLYAUTOMATED

GALUMPHING

GAMINGCONVERSATIONS

GAMINGSF

GEEKYDADFITNESS

GLYFFE

GOINGCOMMANDO

GRAYSCOZYNOOK

GREENMUSHROOM

HEATTANUSGAME

IMNOTSQUISHY

INVENTORYFULL

JVTWORKSHOP

KNIFESEDGE

LEAFLOCKER

LEETERATI

MAGENTALES

MAILVALTAR

MEVSMYSELFANDI

MMOIST

MMOSEY

MMOSYNDICATE

MOONSHINEMANSION

MUNICIPALCITY

MURFVERSUS

NERDYBOOKAHS

NOMADICGAMERSEH

OCARINAFARMS

PARENTTROPE

PARTYBUSINESS

PATHTHEYWALK

PIZZAMAID

PLANBBETTER

PRINCESSINACASTLE

PSYCHOCHILD

RANDOMX

RUNNINGSHOESTV

RYUHNOTE

SCARYBOOSTER

SELFDISTRACTSEQUENCE

SHADOWZABSTRACTGAMING

SHARDSOFIMAGINATION

SIMPLYJANINE

SOULOFTHEFOREST

STABBEDUP

STARSHADOW

STILLAWORKINPROGRESS

STROPPSWORLD

SYMPHONYONACHIP

TALESFROMTHEBACKLOG

TECHJOYTODAY

THINKINGPLAY

THISTHINGSISNEAT

THROUGHWOLFYSEYES

TROYTLEPOWER

UNIDENTIFIEDSIGNALSOURCE

WELSHTROLL

WHATSOCCURRING

WHYIGAME

WOWALTADDICTION

YASASHIIJAPANESE

I've added the PDF's to my Galaxies Wordpress Blog. The Puzzle and Clues will print on separate pages, as one was created in Publisher and one in Word.

Then...some guy in gold shows up and I found him mesmerizing, except, when he moved it looked like he had a diaper-load. Yo.

Gonna love this one.

Needed to break from play in BFA after this. They're all right, at 120 you can't fight a dead snake on the ground. Luckily before my Live characters get to 120, they'll have fixed all of that, I'm sure.

When I made my first ever MMO character in Star Wars Galaxies (A Scout on Starsider) I had no idea if my character was still standing around in the world when I logged out. I didn't want her standing in the rain, so I found a public building I liked and parked my character there in a chair whenever I logged out.

I had no idea you could actually have and decorate your own house. And you could snooze in a bed, though you could never lay down on it.

World of Warcraft has a million places you can snooze, but even in your garrison, they wouldn't let you have your own bed. I've always made my characters comfortable somehow.

I never managed to find an actual bed for my Everquest 2 characters, so they all went to sleep on the floor in a little spot of moonlight.

Guild Wars 2 is gorgeous, and if they had housing it would be stunning. You just have to make yourself at home where you can.

In Elder Scrolls Online I finally got the little room at an inn. It's like the Closet Under The Stairs with no bed in it. It could use a little something. She's all snuggly though.

Before this, she was sleeping among the flowers. She'd had a terrible day. So, zzzzzzz.

Fallout 4 really made their homes attractive, then they nuked them. Before the nukes....

So...Wildstar. I pre-ordered specifically to get the Red Rocket House. Right. Then I got the level 50 boost. Right. For this post, I wanted to gloriously find my plot of land, and finally place that house on it. Not easily, I actually got to my very own plot.

Way cool, isn't it? All this, mine to build on. But. No Red Rocket. Nowhere in any tab. The account wide tab said it was only available with the pre-order achievement. Ya, why don't I have that? Click click click.

Apparently I gave it to another character? Agh. I hope they can share a plot. If I can find who I gave it to, and get them to the capital city, maybe finally finally I can have a home here.

Friday, August 10, 2018

There are so many great blogging ideas out there. I loved the 30 day challenges StarShadow presented in her Writing Prompts post. She also has a link to her own answers to a few of the challenges she's done so you can get an idea how it all works.

Since I'm working my way back into Lord of the Rings Online, I thought I'd try that particular one. My plan is to work on the questions during the week and post my answers to five at a time on Fridays.

The addition of three new cinematics changed the tenor of the Battle of Lordaeron scenario considerably. It has gone from being yet another long, long scenario (as it turns out, I hate scenarios), to a rousing fight.

It does not feel like payback for Teldrassil, but as if a battle had to be fought in order to stop a tide of destruction.

I am all admiration for Anduin's mercy and honor. The kid is growing up fast, but he has kept the essence of who he is.

The day is won however, by Jaina showing up in ship, in the air, (her betrayed father's ship, which she pulled from the bottom of the sea?) and banishing the plague from in front of the keep.

Then, by God, she turns her ship and blasts through the walls with ghostly yet effective cannons. Go Jaina, go!

I also have a new appreciation of Alleria's heroic entrance with Mekkatorque. Going after her own evil sibling, yow. Go, sister!

In the groups I've been in, you can see that everyone is fighting all out, and they take down every single opposing npc.